Review: The Arsonist by Stephanie Oakes

Synopsis: 

It starts with a fire. A diary. A murder.

Molly Mavity is not a normal teenage girl. For one thing, she doesn’t believe that her mother killed herself three years ago. And since her father is about to be executed for his crimes, Molly is convinced that her mother will return to her soon. Finally, the hole in her heart will stop hurting.

Pepper Al-Yusef is not your average teenage boy. A Kuwaiti immigrant with serious girl problems and the most embarrassing seizure dog in existence, he has to write a series of essays over the summer…or fail out of school.

And Ava Dreyman—the brave and beautiful East German resistance fighter whose murder at seventeen led to the destruction of the Berlin Wall—is unlike anyone you’ve met before.

When Molly and Pepper are tasked with finding Ava’s murderer, they realize there’s more to her life—and death—than meets the eye. Someone is lying to them. And someone out there is guiding them along, desperate for answers.

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My Review:

I don't know why I liked this book as much as I did. I was reading through some of the reviews on Goodreads and it seems nobody enjoyed this book. This book seemed to be all over the place all at once. Who lets their children do this kind of stuff? I feel like this book is very juvenile. I still liked it. A lot. 

Why?

I can't tell you, to be honest. I was hooked from page one and couldn't stop reading it. I was extremely interested to see where this story was going to go. Even though this is a story that seems like it could never happen. If it does, I wanna know what's going on with their damn parents. Why do they never check up on the kids?

I was very interested in Ava's story the most. She was the character that was in Berlin during the time they had the Berlin Wall. There's history in this book! German history is my favorite thing to learn about. The Berlin Wall is an insane part of history and it's a big part in this book. 

I was constantly trying to figure out who killed Ava and wasn't really thinking about anything else. That twist at the end really made me stop and think about things. 

I didn't feel a strong connection with Molly or Pepper. Actually, they were both pretty annoying. I just like the fact that Pepper's pug sounds like the cutest, laziest service dog ever.

3.75/5 Stars